Jonah Lehrer’s book, ”Imagine”, addresses how creativity works. It is an excellent book and comes to a number of conclusions about the fact that creativity is really not as much a gift as it is a developed trait. Psychologists, in recent years, have studied the relationship between persistence and creative achievement and have cited the fact that most creative people have a phenomenal ability to stick with their work in spite of all the difficulties and challenges they’re faced with. The technical term used for this trait is grit.
It made me realize that one of the reasons we have so many people in America who actually just give up looking for a job when they need one is that they lack grit.
Many of these people who give up looking for a job just plain don’t know what to do. After talking to a few friends and family they resort to hitting the send button with their resume thinking that is the work of “looking for a job.” Grit in looking for a job has to do with developing a job search strategy and executing on that strategy no matter how hard or difficult it may be. It is putting up with the ups and downs of the job search – the rejection, the refusal, the not getting called back, being told you’re the “best candidate” and then never hearing from the folks who told you that. Grit is what it takes to keep on keeping on in spite of setbacks.
Grit is focusing on the process and not worrying about the results even when it’s emotionally difficult. It is making one more call after 15 or 16 rejections in a row. It’s overcoming the downright depressive, rejected feeling when you don’t get hired to give you the moxie encourage to immediately go to another interview.
Get grit by:
• Encourage a growth mindset. Individuals with a growth mindset believe intelligence and talent can be developed through hard work and dedication. By contrast, those with a fixed mindset believe a person’s most basic abilities are fixed traits.
• Persevere (perseverance is the pursuit; grit is the trait)
• Hard work – Really, really hard work! Like pushing yourself to make 10 more cold calls, right after you have been rejected.
• Drive to improve – Get better at what you do daily. Get more interviews. Interview better. Follow up on those interviews better. Drive to improve
• Self-regulate. Don’t let others take your “power” away from you.
• Push yourself. If you don’t end the day feeling mentally and emotionally depleted, you probably haven’t worked very hard.
• Focus on what you can control and mentally and emotionally let go of the things you can’t control
Get grit!
